"Haggard, H Rider- Cleopatra" - читать интересную книгу автора (Haggard H. Rider)

sand. Here Ali halted, saying that the tomb was under the stone.
Accordingly, we dismounted, and, leaving the donkeys in charge of a
fellah boy, went up to the rock. Beneath it was a small hole, barely
large enough for a man to creep through. Indeed it had been dug by
jackals, for the doorway and some part of the cave were entirely
silted up, and it was by means of this jackal hole that the tomb had
been discovered. Ali crept in on his hands and knees, and I followed,
to find myself in a place cold after the hot outside air, and, in
contrast with the light, filled with a dazzling darkness. We lit our
candles, and, the select body of thieves having arrived, I made an
examination. We were in a cave the size of a large room, and hollowed
by hand, the further part of the cave being almost free from drift-
dust. On the walls are religious paintings of the usual Ptolemaic
character, and among them one of a majestic old man with a long white
beard, who is seated in a carved chair holding a wand in his hand.[*]
Before him passes a procession of priests bearing sacred images. In
the right hand corner of the tomb is the shaft of the mummy-pit, a
square-mouthed well cut in the black rock. We had brought a beam of
thorn-wood, and this was now laid across the pit and a rope made fast
to it. Then Ali--who, to do him justice, is a courageous thief--took
hold of the rope, and, putting some candles into the breast of his
robe, placed his bare feet against the smooth sides of the well and
began to descent with great rapidity. Very soon he had vanished into
blackness, and the agitation of the cord alone told us that anything
was going on below. At last the rope ceased shaking and a faint shout
came rumbling up the well, announcing Ali's safe arrival. Then, far
below, a tiny star of light appeared. He had lit the candle, thereby
disturbing hundreds of bats that flitted up in an endless stream and
as silently as spirits. The rope was hauled up again, and now it was
my turn; but, as I declined to trust my neck to the hand-over-hand
method of descent, the end of the cord was made fast round my middle
and I was lowered bodily into those sacred depths. Nor was it a
pleasant journey, for, if the masters of the situation above had made
any mistake, I should have been dashed to pieces. Also, the bats
continually flew into my face and clung to my hair, and I have a great
dislike of bats. At last, after some minutes of jerking and dangling,
I found myself standing in a narrow passage by the side of the worthy
Ali, covered with bats and perspiration, and with the skin rubbed off
my knees and knuckles. Then another man came down, hand over hand like
a sailor, and as the rest were told to stop above we were ready to go
on. Ali went first with his candle--of course we each had a candle--
leading the way down a long passage about five feet high. At length
the passage widened out, and we were in the tomb-chamber: I think the
hottest and most silent place that I ever entered. It was simply
stifling. This chamber is a square room cut in the rock and totally
devoid of paintings or sculpture. I held up the candles and looked
round. About the place were strewn the coffin lids and the mummied
remains of the two bodies that the Arabs had previously violated. The
paintings on the former were, I noticed, of great beauty, though,
having no knowledge of hieroglyphics, I could not decipher them. Beads